Flexible hoses are known which belong to the cheap category of the market. In order to control production costs, these are produced joining two coaxial tubular layers having reduced thickness, by means of the insertion of a knitted or woven reinforcement therebetween.
The above mentioned types of hoses are usually employed in connection with mounts, joints or irrigation tools having standard size and manufactured on a mass scale. Tubes having a reduced thickness are hard to join to the standard quick-fit joints, therefore a short while after the hose starts being used, water leaks are often found to occur through the joining area.
A further disadvantage of said known hoses is that they are prone to be easily twisted and damaged where they connect with the joint, most often in proximity of the water mains tap.
Several attempts to overcome the above shortcomings were made in the past, for instance fixing joints that are pressed and made to be suitable for the hose either at the production stage or resorting to hose joints to be fixed between the hose and the standard joint, said hose joints being made of a similar material to that the tube is made of and further being suitably secured.
Although on the one hand the above solutions lead to a reinforcement of the hose wall, thus making its bending more difficult, on the other hand they bring about an increase in production costs, that makes them not too favourably welcomed by the users of this specific market.
A further disadvantage is that in case the hose breaks and is subject to shortening at its end portions, it turns out to be mandatory to use standard joints that have the known sealing problems deriving torn the difficulty there is to find special joints distributed by the normal large-scale retail trade.
In case reinforcements are made by hose joints, it is likewise difficult to find spare hose joints to replace those that cannot be recovered after a damaged hose has been shortened.
EP-A-0 118 613 discloses a flexible hose for shower and sanitary fixtures having all the features mentioned in the preamble of the attached claim 1. However, the thickness of one of the inner and outer layers is increased gradually and in a linear way and is not constant along the whole extension of longitudinal end portions. Thus, the end portion with increased thickness must have a relatively long extension in order to provide a sufficient resistance for the joints.